How to Manage Anxiety - 3 Things to Know
Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in our society - over 40 million adults, or 18.1% of the population in the U.S. experiences anxiety. Gone untreated, anxiety disorders can contribute to difficulties with accomplishing one's goals, excessive or unnecessary worry, or other mental health problems such as depression. So what do we need to know to feel less anxious?
1) Anxiety is normal
Unpopular opinion time: anxiety isn't actually a bad thing! I know, I know, you're saying, "but anxiety is preventing me from seeing my friends, leaving my home, insert other fun activity here"! That is true - but when we drill down to what anxiety actually is - our body and minds responding to what they think are a dangerous situation - anxiety isn't actually a bad thing.
Let's think of it this way - imagine you're driving on a busy highway during rush hour. What do you need in order to stay safe, and get to your destination?
-You need to pay attention.
-You need to be alert and watchful.
-You need to be able to respond to changes in your environment (like that lovely person who definitely wasn't checking their mirrors cutting into your lane).
What helps you to do all of these things? You guessed it - anxiety. At a typical level, anxiety allows your body and mind to ensure it can keep itself safe - noting the person who seems to be creeping over into the next lane, planning what you'll do if that person doesn't realize they're over the line, and being able to brake quickly if that person shoves their way right in front of you.
Anxiety is so common because it has a basis in need - our ancestors needed to feel anxious so that they could keep themselves safe from various threats - and we are the descendants of these anxious folks! When we beat ourselves up for feeling anxious, we are beating ourselves up for something as natural as breathing - and often are actually making our anxiety worse.
So what now?
2) You can take control of your anxiety responses
"Okay Jess," you're saying now. "I get it, but anxiety is still a problem in my life. Even if it's needed or common, it's super annoying and I want it gone." While I can't, and won't, promise we can get rid of your anxiety (see the above paragraph for why) - you can certainly take control of it and choose whether to listen to it or not.
Anxiety only has power over you if you let it. When we feel anxious, a part of our brains called the amygdala jump-starts the process of anxiety - all those fun physical symptoms, like trouble breathing, heart pounding, nausea - as a way to try to ready itself to get away from danger. However, the amygdala doesn't "think" - it's like a smoke alarm, built to detect signs of danger without knowing where they come from.
Remember that time you accidentally left dinner in the oven too long and the smoke alarm went off? You knew that there was no fire - but the smoke alarm didn't, it just knows there's smoke, and where there's smoke, there might be fire. In this situation, you represent your logical brain, which assessed the threat (smoke - maybe fire) and determined it was not a threat (I just burned my lasagna - sucks, but no danger). At that moment, you probably cursed your alarm and waved a towel at it until it shut up, right?
You can respond to your amygdala in the same way - you don't have to listen to it! By experiencing situations that provoke anxiety, but aren't actually dangerous (like meeting that new person your friend has been trying to get you to meet, or going to that new restaurant you're not sure you'll like) and reminding your amygdala that there is no danger, you can re-train your brain to better cope with anxiety and even have less anxiety overall. Seriously!
3) Therapy for anxiety can help
Therapy for anxiety can be a huge help. When you're working to put yourself out there and not let anxiety run your life, therapy can help you to structure your efforts for the most efficiency, provide support to keep you going, and help you to determine what activities you should push through to get you to where you want to be.
If any of this resonates with you, we'd love to help you with your anxiety. Metamorphosis Counseling is accepting new clients both in-person and virtually in Pennsylvania. Click here to get started!
